JPANet July 2020 Newsletter

July Newsletter

Getting to the Root of It

We’ve asked UCC advocates to help us unpack the complex justice issues that we’re working on. This month, Rev. Michael Malcom, Executive Director of Interfaith Power and Light, ordained UCC minister, and advocate for environmental justice, looks at the connection between industrial pollution and racism, and offers powerful testimony to the Black experience. 

Experience Life Through My Black Experience

Racism is an organism with tentacles in the foundation of every institution in the United States of America. America was diagnosed with anti-blackness in 1619 and has yet to address its disease.

Jacqui Patterson said, “We, as Black people in the United States and even beyond, have historically and in the present day had the boot of white supremacy on our neck,” In essence, whether it be a knee on the neck by someone who has sworn to protect and serve, it’s voter suppression, or its environmental racism, it all says of the black experience, “I can’t breathe.” (Read more).

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Justice Events

Faith in Politics with Senator Elizabeth Warren

Join Rev. Traci Blackmon and Senator Elizabeth Warren in the first in a series of conversations with public leaders about how their faith informs their politics in this world. What does faith have to do with politics? And how does faith shape a view of the world that translates into policy and transforms the world.

Come, listen, share, and learn, as these leaders speak of their own work and journey with faith into changing the world. Rev. Sandy Sorenson will also join the webinar to share ways everyone can become involved in the Our Faith/Our Vote Initiative. Register here.

AIDs 2020 Interfaith Service (virtual) 

Lament. Resilience. Hope. Renewal.

The United Church of Christ HIV & AIDS Network invites you to gather online with global interfaith leaders to celebrate, reflect and pray on the themes of AIDS2020, the world’s largest annual conference on HIV and AIDS. Live streamed.

Hosted by Grace Cathedral in partnership with the Episcopal Diocese of California, the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance of the World Council of Churches and the San Francisco Interfaith Council.

Click here for a printable flyer. (PDF, letter-size)

RSVP on Facebook.

Watch: ‘John Lewis: Good Trouble’

Justice & Local Church Ministries of the United Church of Christ has partnered with Values Partnerships to offer an opening weekend on demand screening of ‘John Lewis: Good Trouble’ on Sunday, July 5. If you buy a $12 ticket at this link, $5 of each ticket will go to support Justice and Local Church Ministries. 

Justice in Action

Immigration Updates

The U.S.  Supreme Court has blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to terminate DACA, see UCC news story on leaders’ response. Thousands of immigrants in detention including families and children, are in great danger of exposure to COVID-19, please join this sign on letter to Protect and Release Immigrants in Detention and Restore Asylum Protections, see Interfaith Immigration Webinar here. Please join the National Officers by signing onto a UCC letter denouncing false information promoted by the Trump administration that has led to xenophobia and racist actions taken around the country in the midst of COVID-19. Please join the Interfaith Immigration Coalition (IIC) virtual advocacy days from Tuesday, July 14 – Thursday, July 16 to demand that Congress hold the administration accountable and protect and restore the asylum program, RSVP here.

Our Faith Our Vote 2020

The Our Faith Our Vote Campaign is constantly updating to offer you new resources that let you actively engage in this election season, while staying safe during the current pandemic. We are facing a pivotal moment in our country, and where we go from here as local communities, as a nation, and as a global community, will be shaped by our engagement in the 2020 elections. It is up to us to make sure everyone is registered, equipped and empowered to vote, especially in marginalized communities, to find ways to talk about the issues in depth, to ask the critical questions of our candidates, and to make sure that we invest in an electoral system that is safe and accessible for all communities.

Here are resources you can find on our website (www.ourfaithourvote.org):

1. Issue Education Webinars and One-Pagers to help you get informed,
2. The Civic Action Center! From here you can check your registration status, register online (if permitted in your state), find important election dates, see open polling locations near you, and more;
3. TAKE ACTION: Urge your senators to pass the HEROES Act that includes important funding for elections,
4. Helpful video on 501© 3 do’s and don’ts for election engagement.

A Statement in Solidarity with Black Lives Matter from National Farm Worker Ministry

The National Farm Worker Ministry (NFWM), of which the United Church of Christ is a member, calls on people of faith and conscience to be in solidarity with Black Lives Matter, a movement to dismantle white supremacy, end violence against Black lives and, center Black voices as we work together toward justice. Together with NFWM’s member organizations and farm worker partners, we join in the call to justice with and for the communities who are subject to government-sanctioned violence, intimidation, and economic exploitation. Read the statement here.

UCC Advocacy on Nuclear Weapons

The UCC has advocated for the elimination of nuclear weapons throughout our history. This summer, we will join people of peace and goodwill around the world in marking the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. Learn more about events being planned to mark this grim milestone, and consider dedicating your service on Sunday August 9^th to confessing our past and building a future without nuclear weapons. More information and liturgical materials are available here.

Justice Resources

The Pollinator

The Pollinator is a digital platform of the UCC for the sharing of ideas and inspiration. Its focus is the building of a faith-filled and faith-rooted movement for the care of creation

Witness for Justice
Looking for up-to-date social justice commentary? Check out Witness for Justice, a weekly editorial opinion column written by the staff of Justice and Witness Ministries.

Featured topics:

The Wait is Over | Commentary: Nothing Lost in Translation | Never Forget to Say Their Names | Commentary: Adapting to the New Normal